Beau Biden Returns to Delaware Today After Medical Test

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, returned to his home
state after undergoing an unspecified medical procedure this
week at a Houston cancer-treatment hospital.

The younger Biden, accompanied by his father, had checked
into the hospital for tests after an episode of disorientation
and weakness last week. Both Bidens were traveling to Delaware
today on Air Force 2, the vice president’s plane, according to
the elder Biden’s office.

“They’ve landed and have arrived home,” Jason Miller, a
spokesman for the Delaware Department of Justice, said in an e-mail.

The vice president, without describing the treatment his
son received or the nature of his ailment, yesterday called the
procedure “successful” in a statement released by his office.

“He is in great shape,” Joe Biden said. “He will follow
up with his local physicians in the coming weeks.”

Beau Biden, 44, will speak with Delaware’s chief deputy
attorney general and the state prosecutor today, according to an
e-mailed statement yesterday from Miller, the Delaware
Department of Justice spokesman.

“Can’t wait to get back,” the younger Biden said on
Twitter earlier today. “Thank you, Houston.”

Biden was treated at the University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center, according to a person familiar with the situation
who isn’t authorized to talk publicly about it. U.S. News &
World Report ranks MD Anderson No. 1 in the nation for cancer
care, and has done so for the past seven years, according to the
hospital’s website. Miller had declined to confirm that.

Twitter Picture

Biden on Aug. 20 posted on Twitter a picture of himself and
his wife, Hallie, in Houston. “Touched by all your well wishes
-- thank you,” he wrote. The couple has two children.

The elder Biden, 70, accompanied his son to Houston earlier
this week, flying from Delaware, according to the vice
president’s office. He remained in the city during his son’s
hospital stay.

The vice president scrapped plans to attend a fundraiser
today for New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, an event at
Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and a
Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a private home, his
office said.

He is scheduled to join President Barack Obama at an event
tomorrow in Scranton, Pennsylvania, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said yesterday. “But we’ll see,” Earnest added at a
briefing with reporters.

The vice president was born in Scranton, and his family
moved to Delaware during his childhood.

Emergency Call

Emergency service workers were called to the vice
president’s home in Wilmington on Aug. 1, according to a log on
the website of the community’s Cranston Heights fire station.
The incident was coded as a suspected cerebrovascular accident,
or stroke.

Rickie Clark Jr., a staff supervisor for the station,
declined in a phone interview yesterday to confirm whether there
had been a call from the elder Biden’s home or provide details
about any help that may have been provided.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for the vice president,
declined to comment in an e-mail today about the emergency call
listed in the fire station log.

Miller said in an e-mail today that he had no information
about whether Beau Biden had been staying at his father’s home
earlier this month or the nature of the emergency call.

2010 Treatment

The attorney general was treated for a mild stroke in 2010.
A Democrat, he decided earlier that year to forgo seeking the
U.S. Senate seat his father had held for 36 years and
relinquished after winning election as vice president on Obama’s
presidential ticket in 2008.

Beau Biden first felt weak and disoriented while driving to
Indiana on Aug. 14, according to a statement from his office.
After meeting with his doctor at Jefferson University Hospital
in Philadelphia later in the week, he spent the weekend at home.

Elected Delaware attorney general in 2006, Beau Biden is an
officer in the Army National Guard and served a yearlong
deployment in Iraq. He won re-election in 2010, with almost 80
percent of the vote.

He survived a car crash in December 1972 that killed his
mother and 1-year-old sister. He and his younger brother,
Hunter, were seriously injured in the collision, which occurred
just weeks after his father was first elected to the U.S.
Senate.

The elder Biden married his current wife, Jill, in 1977,
and one daughter was born to them. The vice president underwent
surgery twice in 1988 to repair two cranial aneurysms.